Thanks for the links. :) I pinned
Non-fanfic topics in FanFiction, where you can check out some writing resources that have been posted on this board. I'll add yours! I did indeed write my own newbie guide, linked from there and
here (very much a beginner guide; more experienced writers might find it patronising).
I don't like character profiles myself, although I do know some find them useful; IMO the key aspect of a character is their personality, because that's how the reader can identify with them. So what I do is work out the basic facts about them, and usually make their flaws flow from their good qualities--for example, if they're innocent and good they might also come across as naive and silly--and write up a basic bio, and then concentrate on the story itself. What I don't like about character profiles is that sometimes the questions just aren't the right ones for that particular character, irrelevant or pointless; but it's certainly good to be able to get inside your character's skin, and they help with that. It's also good to make notes laying out timelines, character facts and important details; as such things gradually come out in my writing I stick them in the bios section.
This character, Fiore, is probably a Mary-Sue (not written by DemonicFury): the slightly suspect name, a "perfect fairy child" 'cepting for a white blemish on her purple skin, "an almost perfect being" aside from the little physical thing the readers prolly think would look nice ANYWAY, abandoned by her birth family and her adopted family, somehow survives a year in the wilderness alone at age five, then becomes "an outcast within outcasts" (FEEL the angst, never mind that--not denying that bullying most certainly exists and is very wrong--there is often *some* reason why everyone hates a particular person, even if it's only social inadequacy, which of course is no excuse for bullying), lives among people "ugly outside as well as inside" (the author appears to be rather appearance-oriented, and miraculously the character remains morally perfect), a nature girl who "explores the forests and scavenges for anything that sparkles as well as discusses with flowers and nature", has "tricky fae magic", and a "heart pure and jovial" despite everything she's been through! The character has a history, but her history doesn't make sense, and her personality seems incredibly shallow.
I'd rewrite Fiore as follows: She can keep her notreallyablemish and her fairy powers, but after being abandoned twice I think it'd be a little hard to keep a heart pure and jovial. She was looking forward to meeting her original family when her adopted family dumped her in the forest, but quickly got disillusioned as she realised they'd abandoned her too. She's only on her own for about a week, what with being only five and all, and at the end of that with hardly any food she would've died if the outcasts hadn't found her. She's desperate for acceptance by anyone and needs to survive, so she *becomes* as ugly on the inside as the other outcasts regardless of the Suethor's beauty complex. She feels like she wants to get along with people, so she's weak-willed, obeys the outcasts and is reasonably accepted by them. Human travellers come through, and she actually helps torture them in order to gain approval, although she feels sick afterwards at causing them pain and only then starts reforming. She has the ability to commune with nature to some extent, and (defining her powers fully right from the start to avoid pulling something from my arse halfway through the book) can cast minor illusions, disguising the appearance of herself and a small area around. She would have tried to use her powers for the benefit of the outcasts to gain acceptance from this family, but she's still too young and her powers aren't especially useful to them. Her communication with nature included the communication with all the nasty bits (it's not all pretty flowers, even some *plants* are parasites, red in tooth and claw and all that!) and this means she understands some of what the outcasts do, but when it comes to sadistic torture, that very human thing is what finally alarms her.
You see? I altered the personality to something that made more sense for her environment, and explored how the events in the timeline would actually affect a person. Of course there are other possible rewrites, for example it could be canon all fairies of a particular bloodline are always optimistic, can't hurt anyone ever, and feel love in their hearts from their distant spiritual deity. And that would have its own consequences, and develope Fiore in a different direction--she'd tend to come across as very silly considering her life circumstances, and too good to be true, but that'd be somewhat balanced by being ineffective at fighting, and probably also young, inexperienced, foolish and sometimes playing a doormat as a result of that pure nature. In the story Fiore could have to learn more backbone, deal with the fact that despite that love her families still abandoned her, and maybe throw in a spiritual issues/genetics-is-destiny theme there.
Timelines and profiles are great for those who like 'em, but they don't eliminate Mary-Sues.